Barcelona in record bid for Beckham

Beckham was England's main creator at Euro 2000

Barcelona have made a world record £45m bid for David Beckham according to Spanish newspaper Marca.

United are not thought to be considering the bid, but if Barcelona lose Luis Figo to Lazio, they will pursue Beckham more vigorously.

The bid is said to have been made by Jaume Llaorado who is currently campaigning to be elected president of the Catalan club.

All of the club's 120,000 members get to vote for the president, so there is speculation that Llaorado is merely trying to increase his profile with the fans.

Bergkamp is another target for Barcelona

The paper ran another story which suggested that Arsenal's Dennis Bergkamp is also a target for Barcelona.

A spokesman for the paper said: "Llaorado wants to persuade Barcelona fans he is the right man to be president and that is why he wants Beckham so badly.

"He contacted Manchester United last week and so far he has not had a response. He also contacted Arsenal about Dennis Bergkamp but they did not want to do business."

Most expensive transfers

Christian Vieri, Lazio to Inter, £32m

Nicolas Anelka, Arsenal to Real Madrid, £23.5m

Denilson, Sao Paulo to Real Betis, £22m

Gabriel Batistuta, Fiorentina to Roma, £22m

Christian Vieri, Atletico Madrid to Lazio, £19m

The move would smash the world record fee for a player. The most expensive transfer currently is Christian Vieri's move from Lazio to Inter Milan for £32m last year.

Beckham is one of the few England players who emerged from Euro 2000 with any credit for his performances.

He set up three of England's goals with outstanding crosses from the right flank.